Going from hitting the brick wall to backing away from it

Technology has been an amazing part of my classroom. Aside from the iPad classes, I also teach 3 resource room classes. Each resource room has 2 different grade levels at the same time. So looking at the schedule I may only “teach” 5 classes but 3 of the classes have 2 grades in them. I typically loop with my students at least part of their middle school experience. I love watching them grow, getting to know their personalities and also their families. The first time I get my kiddos it is often a rough go for the first few weeks, usually I have a lot of faith in being able to get them where they need to be but for some reason early this year, I didn’t have the usual confidence.

I finally came to the conclusion that I was spoiled for the past 3 years. They made AMAZING growth. By the time they left me in 8th grade, the state of Ohio saw them as proficient on their OAA. Some of them made 20 points worth of growth, others made closer to 50 points growth. Last year we were reading Edgar Allen Poe and the reality was that I would not be able to do it with this group of students. I was crushed as I felt last year was amazing, we read and understood text that I never thought I could do in the resource room.

This year started and I would ask questions, the kiddos looked at me like I had 6 heads. I felt that I was knocking my head against a brick wall (and some days I actually was) I realized that the issue was not with the kids but with me. I was still wishing and hoping that I would be able to use the same short stories and have the same levels of understanding. Once I realized that we needed to change, I had to set the wheels in motion.

I have one individual who can do the short stories and have the same understanding, but the rest of them should be met individually or in partner groups. Two of the young ladies might have the abilities but really lack the confidence to speak out loud in class or look people in the eye. Before I can even start to “teach” reading I need to boost their confidence.

I decided to teach them individually. Luckily I have only 4 students in the class and I learned how to make a mastery unit with Schoology. Between Schoology and Google Slides, I was able to converse and build a presentation with one young lady on point of view in writing. She has even begun to preview the short story “Charles” by Shirley Jackson. She is going to be my pilot student on the mastery folders. If they work well (and I think they would) I have a few other ideas. Might take me all year but I think this should work well for the kiddos. After all they are the reason I’m there.

Being in a resource room I love seeing any success that we can get from a student. I wished the state would see the students through my eyes and not just as a test score. With all the changes to evaluations and testing, it becomes harder and harder to see even the smallest success in a positive light, in my mind I have to refuse this as sometimes this is where my students land and they have worked their hardest to get there.

Stepping outside of our comfort zones

As a teacher my intentions are to prepare students for the future. Yes I care about the test scores but more importantly I want them to be prepared for real life. Not only do I make them research apps, brainstorm activities, self evaluate, peer evaluate, take risks and attempt to show their creative side, I also make them present to their peers on a weekly basis (GASP! HOW DARE SHE!) Some of the presentations are very short, others longer but they have to present their findings and what they created. Here is the issue...I dislike being in front of a crowd of my peers. Give me a class full of students and I do fine, but my peers are another story. In order to not be a "Do as I say, not as a I do" type of teacher, I have started to branch out of my comfort zone.

Last spring, I presented at a small mobile learning symposium at Bowling Green State University. The experience was not that bad so I decided to start looking for more opportunities. What I found was a very limited number of presentations on students with special needs and the incorporation of technology into their classes. I found my niche!  I spent this morning presenting two different sessions one being a paper"less" classroom and the other was meeting the needs of all students in the digital age. The feedback I received was positive and by the end of the morning I was more comfortable. Last week I submitted a proposal to present at OETC in February.  I should know more in a few weeks if I have the opportunity. Either way I plan on attending.

Things are trucking along in my classroom. In my absence I gave my students an experience with app dice. We have been talking about digital citizenship and internet safety for the past few weeks. Students were choosing a random item from a bag and roll an app die (Thanks Tony Vincent) to see what app they would be using to create a visual explanation of the item. I was really excited about this project. I hope they were also. Too often we get stuck in the apps we like and are afraid to go outside of our comfort zone. This activity required the students (and adults) to go outside of their comfort zone.